


Return of the Coyote

by Doug48



Series: Zoo 1.1 [9]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16431668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doug48/pseuds/Doug48
Summary: More Nick and Judy at work in the ZPD. This one is related to another one I did in this series awhile back, and of course the first chapter has some comments related to the last story.Note: I went back later and adjusted the timeline so it works better.





	1. Just another day for fox and rabbit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some followup information from the last one, and the set up for the rest of this story.

Tuesday night / Wednesday morning

The fox was dreaming. It was a good dream. He was home, but was in no special place. His mother was there, and she held him. He snuggled closer, and she sighed.

‘That didn’t sound right,’ Nick thought. ‘But why?’

He felt really good. His snout was, no, it was his mother’s snout, was on his shoulder. Her ears were in his face. This was also wrong, but he didn’t really care as he continued to sleep. 

The alarm sounded, and he opened his eyes. He couldn’t see the clock because Judy’s ears were in the way. Now he sat up and looked, cautiously, to his left to see a bunny wearing pajamas. 

She stirred, opened her eyes, and turned off the alarm. “Hey, Nick. How did you sleep?” She asked, as if nothing odd had happened. As if they had not agreed, after much arguing the night before, that she would sleep on the couch. ‘It’s your house, Nick, not mine,’ she had said, before pushing him toward his bedroom. 

“Great. You?” He replied, stalling for time. ‘What is she doing here in my bed?’

“I slept well. You make an excellent pillow,” she said, and then climbed out of the fox sized bed.

“Thanks.”

The rabbit headed for the kitchen, probably for coffee or at least the ubiquitous carrot juice.

They were both fully dressed and this both relieved, and, very slightly, disappointed Nick. It relieved him because he was a fox, and foxes don’t think of rabbits as sexual partners. Most foxes, anyway. Probably. He was disappointed because, why? He wasn’t really sure why. This was his partner and best friend. Why would he want to make the already perfect relationship more complicated than necessary? He hadn't even thought about THIS possibility the night before. 

“Coffee?” Judy asked from the kitchen, slightly louder than absolutely necessary.

“Sure,” Nick replied, in a normal tone of voice.  
\----------------------------------------------  
Hours passed, and the partners found themselves at ZPD Headquarters. Nearly every morning started with Chief Bogo’s briefing, and first shift cops were required to attend. Sometimes second shift cops also attended, if there was going to be an important announcement. Sergeant Bambi was here today, and Judy waved to the buck, who nodded back. 

The chief entered the room to the usual greeting and responded in the usual way. “Shut it!”

This was the signal for all the officers, except Hopps, to sit down. Rabbit Officer Hopps was too short to sit, and still be seen, so she stood on a chair. Fox Ofc. Wilde, slightly taller, have found a book to sit on. There had been snide comments, but Nick had replied that he was reading it through a kind of osmosis. Nobody was really sure if that was true, and the bookmark had moved every time anyone saw it.

“First item. Announcements. Former ZPD Ofc. Brett Bison will not be tried in criminal court due to the killing of Ian Flem. The district attorney does not believe there is sufficient evidence to move forward with a criminal trial. Mr. Flem’s mother, however, will be filing civil charges. She can do this because he’s not an officer of the ZPD.”

Ofc. Hopps didn’t say anything, and the other officers were careful not to look too directly at her. If she noticed their odd behavior, she gave no sign.

“And McDermitt?” Nick asked.

“As I’m sure you know, Wilde, he will not be charged with anything. The general feeling at the DA’s office seems to be that losing his job was sufficient punishment. Also, he didn’t shoot anyone.” Again, nobody looked at Officer Hopps, and again, she didn’t react.

“So, with that out of the way,” the big buffalo continued, “Second item.”

“Ofc. Wolford. Please stand,” the chief said, and the wolf stood. “Does he look dangerous to you?”

Seconds passed, and there was some head shaking, and a general negative muttering.

“See how long that took? That’s how long you should spend every time you see a mammal at or near a crime scene or potential crime scene, and this is a mammal you know. On the other paw, you know he’s armed, but the weapon is not in his paw.”

“Wolford? You can sit back down. Hopps? Which is more important? Your life or the life of a citizen of Zootopia?”

“The citizen, sir.”

“Very good. All of you, understand this. We serve and we protect. That’s the job. If you can’t accept that, I don’t want you carrying lethal out there. There is no shame in trading your lethal for a Taser. I will understand."

The room was entirely silent as the chief first leaned forward slightly, and then leaned back and began to pace in front of the room. He didn’t speak for several steps. Then he said, “don’t shoot mammals. Unless you know your life, or the life of a civilian, is in danger. Don’t have your lethal out and ready as you exit your car unless you know shots have been fired or unless the dispatcher tells you the suspect is armed.”

“Sir, the SOP-” Sgt. Bambi started to say.

“I know what it says. We’re working on updating it,” the chief replied. He glared at Ofc. Wilde, but the fox said nothing, and his partner didn’t punch him as she would have done had he said something foolish.

“If the suspect is armed, with a lethal, pistol or knife, then you may have to use your lethal weapon. If the suspect is not armed, you may not use your weapon.”

“And after it's over, if they’re still not armed, be sure to place-” another officer started to say, but stopped when Officer Hopps turned around and glared at him.

“Too soon,” Nick said, not very loud, but everyone heard.

“Moving on. Anyone have anything to share? Anything you want to get off your chest?”

The rabbit raised a paw, and the chief pointed a hoof at her. “Hopps?”

“I spent last night and the evening before entirely in the company of Nicholas Wilde,” she said. Ears up, straight face, no sign of deceit or embarrassment.

The buffalo looked at the fox, who shrugged.

“Hopps? Does Clawhauser need to start planning a wedding or a baby shower?”

“No chief,” the rabbit replied. Ears up and still not blushing.

Nick was not looking as smug as expected, but then, the announcement had appeared to surprise him as well.

“Don’t care,” Bogo said.

The meeting eventually broke up after Bogo told everyone they could see him individually if the new weapons policy was not clearly understood. The fox and the rabbit carried nonlethal tasers, so they would not be speaking to the chief.

The fox was still thinking about the previous night while on patrol later that day. ‘I can’t ask,’ he thought, careful to keep his lips closed. ‘Or I could, but what can I say? It was nice, but not my idea. Bunnies are very social, and family members do typically sleep in the same bed. But I’m not-‘

His thoughts were interrupted by his cell. He read the message, then turned to Officer Hopps next to him.

“I got a message from a mammal. About another mammal. Somebody’s up to something,” he said cryptically.

“Right,” Ofc. Hopps replied. “You are bored and you want to stand around in an alley by yourself for 10 minutes. You are going to pretend to talk, or not talk, to someone who may or may not be in the alley with you.”

“No, really, I got something. Pull over here, okay?”

She did. Ofc. Wilde left the car and walked to a nearby alley. Ofc. Hopps stayed with the car as usual because, as Nick put it, ‘cops make these mammals nervous.’ With apparently no irony at all.

A minute later, Nick returned. “Carrots? Pull the car up, okay? Got someone who wants to see you. Again.”


	2. Enter the Pig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the next day, Thursday, probably 15-20 hours after the end of chapter 1. "Enter the pig" could easily have been Chapter 3, but I wanted to reveal what was going on slowly over the course of the next several chapters.

The pig was having a good day. If he wanted to be honest, he was actually having a good week, and he fully expected it to continue unless something drastic changed. ‘Biters finally got what’s been coming to them, and I was in on it,’ he thought. And indeed he had been. Before the coup, 'Major' Hogsteader had been a lowly file clerk in the Office of Counter Intelligence of Nova Ferocia. He had been just another member of a prey supremacy group with big plans. But now? Now, he was in Zootopia, in charge of his own team and leading an important mission. He would show everyone, especially those damned biters, who was on top. Who should always be on top.

This morning, that meant getting help from the local police, the ZPD. He had already spoken to Mayor Lionheart and the City Council, the previous evening. ‘The mayor is a biter, but at least he knows his place. As for the Council, they were mostly prey and they understood how the game was played. In this case, the rules were simple. ‘You’ll get your embassy personnel in exchange for our embassy personnel,’’ the pig thought, and entered the lobby of the ZPD with his hench mammals as the sun was coming up. 

The morning briefing began again, as usual, at 0830, but this time, the chief didn’t have to tell the officers to "shut it." They went silent on their own when they saw the chief was not alone. This morning, he had what looked like an elaborately costumed, or possibly uniformed, pig with him.

A very military looking pig, complete with a sidearm. The uniform was black with various red highlights. Both left and right breast pockets were covered with what looked, to the fox in the room, very much like Junior Ranger Scout ribbons. Both shoulder lapels had rank insignia and both epaulets had small medallions that looked very much like miniature predator skulls. Skulls with sharp teeth anyway. The pig had designed the uniform himself. 

Bogo noticed his officers staring at the pig. “Sit down,” he told them, and they did, with barely any comment.

“You may have noticed that we have a visitor with us this morning. This is Major Hogsteader, from the People’s Democratic Republic of Nova Ferocia. Mayor Lionheart has asked us to give the major all reasonable cooperation,” the chief said. "As you can see-"

“You will be giving me your assistance," the pig said, interrupting the buffalo. "That assistance will involve the apprehension and arrest of at least two wanted fugitives. These fugitives are Mr. Lee and Ms. Wiles. You’ll be getting pictures of these criminals before you go out on patrol this morning.”

“What are their crimes?” Sergeant Higgins asked. He was looking at the buffalo and ignoring the pig. 

The pig's ears flattened against his skull, and Bogo spoke. “Mr. Lee and Ms. Wiles are former members of the Nova Ferocian embassy here in Zootopia. Ms. Wiles, in fact, was the ambassador.”

“Who is-” Higgins began.

“We are working on selecting a suitable, prey mammal, replacement,” the pig replied to the hippo, earning other glare from Chief Bogo. "Someone will be chosen in the next day or two."

“These two are accused of serious crimes against mammal kind and that’s all you really need to know. I want them, or their bodies, to be returned to the PDRNF. Shoot to kill is authorized,” the pig said.

“Don’t-” Bogo began.

“’All cooperation’. That means we do this my way,” the pig said, sounding amused. He was staring at Chief Bogo, resting one hoof on his holstered pistol, and ignoring the rest of the officers in the bullpen. The buffalo towered over the pig, but it was the buffalo that backed down. This time. 

The other officers of the ZPD were silent now. Mostly from shock because they'd never seen anyone talk to the chief that way. 

“I understand that several ZPD officers have had contact with Wiles and Lee?” The pig asked.

“Yes,” the chief ground out. His ears were back and both hooves were clenched at his sides. “Yes. Officers Hopps, Wilde, and Wolford, here, and Sergeant Bambi. The Sgt. is a member of second shift,” the chief said, gesturing to the relevant officers as he named them. 

“I’ll need to see these two,” the pig said, pointing at the rabbit and the fox, “in your office. Find the ambassador immediately or face the consequences. Get it done.” Then he walked out of the room.

Now the bullpen erupted in noise, and the chief thumped the lectern with a hoof. “Shut it!” He said, and looked at his officers. To his credit, this time, that swarmy fox kept his trap shut. 'Maybe he really can learn,' the buffalo thought, not for the first time.

“Hopps and Wilde. You may go to my office now,” the chief said, pointing with a hoof. 

Again noise erupted as the rabbit and the fox left the room.

“Are you ready for this, fluff?” The fox asked the rabbit when they were outside the bullpen.

Instead of replying verbally, Officer Hopps jumped up on a nearby chair and hugged Officer Wilde chest to chest, with her muzzle on his right shoulder. Then she drew back and looked at his green eyes. “I am ready.”

A few minutes later, the rabbit arrived at the chief’s office door, knocked, and entered when invited.

“Ah, Officers Hopps and- Where’s the fox?” The pig asked. He was not alone in the chief's office. He had two other pigs with him, and he sat in the chief’s chair behind the desk. The other two pigs wore similar, but less elaborate, uniforms. The rabbit knew this was because Hogsteader outranked them. 

“Nick is- that is, I don’t know where he is,” the rabbit said, slumped her shoulders, and dropped both ears behind her head. Then she looked up at the pig behind the desk, climbed awkwardly into one of the two available chairs, and sat down. 

When she sat down the pig could no longer see her. One of the other two pigs laughed, but the rabbit, apparently lost in her misery, didn’t react.

Maj. Hogsteader got up from behind the desk so he could see the rabbit in the chair. “Where is the other one?” He asked the room as a whole. His subordinates, of course, had no idea. 

The rabbit refused to meet the pig’s eyes. “He was with me a second ago.”

The door opened again and Chief Bogo stormed through. He stopped just inside the door, looked at Officer Hopps, and then glared at Major Hogsteader. “What are you doing in my chair?”

“All reasonable assistance. That’s what Lionheart said,” the pig reminded the buffalo. "And where is your other officer?"

The buffalo was about to say something when the rabbit's cell phone went off. The rabbit, ignoring the other occupants of the room, pulled out her cell phone, checked her message, and gasped in surprise. She looked at Chief Bogo. “Sir-”

“Give me that,” the pig said, motioning to the rabbit’s cell phone.

“I don’t think-” the rabbit began, switching between looking at the pig and the buffalo. Her lip was trembling, and an observer might think there were tears in her eyes. 

“Hand it over, Hopps,” the buffalo said. “We have nothing to hide.”

The pig took the cell phone and read the message.

CAN’T EXPLAIN NOW. TRUST ME. I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. :-) SEE YOU AT YOUR PLACE. WILDE.

There was silence as the pig considered the message. Then he asked the rabbit, "Where do you live?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might notice Judy acting strange. I hope you'll stick with the story a few more chapters and find out why.


	3. Driving Judy Hopps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pigs search for Nick Wilde on Thursday

They arrived at Hopps apartment about an hour later. Ofc. Hopps had ridden with the three pigs and sat in the back of the limousine with the major. He had been talking pretty much nonstop.

“We’ve got a great deal in common, Judy. Both of us are outsiders,” Hogsteader was saying now.

The pig had not asked a direct question, so the rabbit did not respond, but continued to stare out the window on the other side of the car.

“What’s wrong?” The major asked, eventually. 

“Nothing,” she replied, without turning. Her ears were still down and she kept her arms wrapped around herself.

“Are you worried about your partner? Don’t be. We'll find him,” Hogsteader assured her. Then he continued, to himself, ‘and we’ll find Ambassador Wiley as well. The fox must be helping her, or he would not have disappeared like this.’

The car stopped, and the pigs in the front got out. “We’re here sir,” one said, and opened the major’s door. The other one opened Judy’s door on the other side of the car, but he didn’t say anything.

“Nice place,” Hogsteader said, but he was thinking, ‘what a dump.’

The major waited for the rabbit and then had his guards walk in front of, and behind, him and the rabbit. There were few other mammals near by, and nobody paid the four of them any attention.

One of the pigs opened the outer door to Judy’s apartment building, and then Judy went in first.

“Flat 511, right?” Hogsteader said, and waited for one of the other pigs to call an elevator. This building had a floor selection panel on the wall instead of in the elevators, and so the pig pressed the number 5.

“This sort of place, in this part of town, is really not your style, Judy,” Hogsteader said, after they boarded the elevator. He watched the rabbit, but she seemed to be paying no attention to him. Her ears were still down and her shoulders were slumped, as if exhausted.

“If you work for me, you could live somewhere nicer,” he continued. Getting no response, he asked, “would you like that?”

“I can’t work for you. I have to stay in Zootopia,” she replied without enthusiasm.

“Why is that?” The pig asked, surprised.

“I need to be here when Nick comes back,” she replied. “So he can find me.”

‘Dumb bunny,’ the pig thought. ‘The fox has her under some sort of mental dominance. I wonder how he did it? Or maybe all rabbits are this gullible?’ Hogsteader had not met many rabbits.

Aloud, he said, “you could stay here, but you would work for me and I would pay you extra. You would be my eyes and ears here. Just tell me things. Harmless things. How does that sound?”

“But I don’t know anything,” she replied, and opened the apartment door. Now she seemed to be more actively avoiding eye contact with Hogsteader.

‘Indeed, it’s a bedsit, as expected,’ the pig thought.

It was very small, and they could all see from the doorway that Nick Wilde was not there. “Check under the bed,” Hogsteader said. 

 

Thirty minutes later, after the pigs had assured themselves that there were no foxes hiding anywhere, they were back in the limo again. They had questioned the neighbors; they said they had seen a fox, but not recently.  
Nobody had seen a female coyote. Or, if they had seen any canines, they were not sure if any were coyotes.

“Well. Who’s hungry?” Hogsteader asked.

Judy did not answer, so the pigs picked out a buffet. They ate a great deal and with great enthusiasm, but the rabbit had only a salad.

Then everyone went back to the car. Porkie got back behind the wheel and Paul got in next to him in the front passenger seat. Officer Hopps and Major Hogsteader got in the back like before. The car started moving again. “What do you think of my offer Judy? Would you like to work for me?” He asked.

“I’ll have to ask Nick,” The rabbit replied.

“Fine! If you are going to be that way you can just walk back to the station!” Hogsteader shouted. He was more frustrated than angry. 

“Let her off here,” Hogsteader said to his subordinates after the car stopped.

 

Officer Judy Hopps watched the limousine drive away. She knew they would not go far. They would probably turn at the next corner, stop somewhere out of sight, drop off one of their pigs, probably Paul, and then see what she would do next.

“Now, what would a dumb country bunny do in this situation? I have just been abandoned on a street corner by a trio of fascist pigs. They will think I need to call for help because I am clearly unable to help myself!” The rabbit muttered to herself. Then she thought, ‘those pigs must have gotten more under my fur than I thought if I am brooding and talking to myself this way.’

She walked a few steps and turned in place. ‘I could lose them easily, but letting them wander around unsupervised today was never part of the plan,’ she thought.

She pulled out her cell phone and activated a number.

“Finn? Can you pick me up? I am on Broad Street near Woolworth,” she said, trying not to look at the pig watching her from across the street. 

“Are you in trouble? Do you need some protection?” Finn asked. His voice was mocking because he knew perfectly well that she didn’t need any help kicking someone’s ass.

“Not really,” she replied, turning away from the watcher. “There are three pigs and they hope I will lead them to Nick and then Nick will lead them to a coyote, but that will not happen.”

“You guys are hustling these pigs? Want me to help by giving them some baseball lessons? I haven’t had any batting practice in a long time,” The fox replied.

Judy smiled, glad that Finn was in a good mood. “No, just pick me up in front of the store.”

“In front?” Finn asked, amazed. 

“Why not? I am not particularly worried about anyone following us, so there is no reason to sneak out the back.”

 

“What she doing now?” Hogsteader asked.

“She’s just standing on the sidewalk, boss,” Paul replied. “Okay, a van just showed up. It’s got some weird artwork on the side. She got in. Should be very easy to follow.”

“We’ll pick you up.”

 

“Thanks, Finn,” Judy said, after Finn started the van moving again. 

“Not doing it for you. Doing it for Nick. Speaking of? You fucked his brains out yet?” The small fox asked, leering.

‘He is trying to provoke an angry or embarrassed reaction,’ Judy thought. ‘On the other hand, I think he really wants to know.’ “No. But I would like to,” she replied while watching the rearview mirror. ‘I think I confused him last night, but I wasn’t sure what else to do and I don't want some vixen getting her paws on him. It was clear that he will not take the first step on his own,’ Judy thought. “He is such a gentle mammal that I think he does not know how to ask.”

“Doesn’t know how? No, that’s not it. Nick has a great deal of experience with vixens. That’s probably why-“

“Hey, what’s that on your uniform?” Finn asked, when they stopped at a red light. 

Judy looked down, and picked something off her armor, but could not figure out what it was. “Probably some piece of fruit or other. Maybe part of that cherry pie they were enjoying? I do not know. Those pigs were eating very enthusiastically.”

“So, they were eating like pigs, in other words?” Finn asked, and then laughed. 

“Yes, how else would they eat?” Judy replied, apparently puzzled. Finn just shook his head. 

“Here you are. ZPD! Home away from home,” Finn said, stopping the van so Judy could get out.

“Thanks again. Are you going to have a talk with the pigs?” Judy asked, opening the door and preparing to jump out. The van was too large for her to just step out, after all. Finn was also about Judy’s size, and he always had to climb or jump in.

“Talk with them? Sure, if that’s what you want to call it. See you around, rabbit,” Finn replied. Judy hopped out, closed the door, and then waved as the van drove away. 

 

“Now what boss?” Porky asked.

Hogsteader didn’t know. The plan wasn’t working, he was no closer to finding the ambassador, and he had no idea what to do next. ‘Is Hopps a red herring?’ Hogsteader wondered. "I need more mammals.'

“Company coming,” Paul said, gesturing to the van that was approaching.

“Let’s see what he wants,” Hogsteader said.

Porky and Paul got out of the limousine on opposite sides, and then they both put their right hands on their holstered pistols and waited. The van stopped and a small fox got out, looked at them, shrugged, and started walking towards them. He did not appear to be armed.

“That’s far enough,” Porky said when the small fox was only a few feet away from the limousine. Hogsteader was still in the car, but he had his window rolled down so we could hear the conversation.

“Can tell you where the fox hides. If there’s a reward?” The fox asked, sounding hopeful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was thinking I should give readers a look into what everyone is actually thinking. And I wanted to get Finn involved because I haven't used him in Zoo1.1 recently.


	4. The Ambassador

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, what was the fox doing?

Early Thursday morning 

“I see you're awake” Nick asked.

The former ambassador of Nova Ferocia looked up from her phone in her lap and thought about the question. ‘I wonder what you're doing here?’ She thought. “I’m fine. Thanks for,” she paused and waved, “all this.” 

‘All this’ was a hospital bed, expert medical care, and no non-medical questions, so far, from anyone she did not know.

“Eh. Think nothing of it,” the fox replied. He was leaning on a nearby column, one paw shoved into a pocket of his pants. There was a pair of sunglasses in one of his shirt pockets, and his tie was loose.

“What happened?” The coyote asked, and then added, “last night.”

“You collapsed and slept like the dead. Probably a result of exhaustion, but I'm sure the stress and injury to your leg didn't help,” the fox replied. “You had seemed to be in a kind of mental shock. No concussion and apparently not in danger of losing consciousness like that. We brought you here.”

'Here' was the Zootopian General Hospital emergency room. The sun only recently risen, the ambassador had no memory of the night before, and she had very few memories of the previous day.

“What do you remember?” The fox asked. He had not come any closer to the bed.

“We knew something was happening, at the Embassy. We weren’t sure how bad it was. Then the guards were told to arrest us. Some of us escaped. Last I remember, Mr. Lee and I were running down an alley. I’m not sure what happened after that. I have a kind of vague memory of you talking to some people and sitting on a couch somewhere.”

The fox nodded. “A friend of mine found you in that alley so he called me at work, and then Judy and I took you to my place. It's a good thing I’ve got a doctor friend that makes house calls because we weren't sure what would happen if your information showed up on somebody's radar during daylight.”

“How much do you know?” The coyote asked. “Where is Mr. Lee?” She had noticed that Nick was not going out of his way to give her any names, but she did not press him about it. 

“Your panther assistant? I don’t know. He was not in the alley. As for how much I know? I know you need help.”

“Okay. So. I have to ask this. Why are you doing this?”

Now the fox detached himself from the column, and looked down before answering. “Why are females always asking me that every time I try to do a good deed?”

The coyote did not answer.

“Fine. I know you. I don’t know them, this new bunch. So I’m helping you,” the fox said, shrugging, and then moving closer to the bed. “Also, I expect to be well compensated when your guys regain power.”

“Very funny,” the Nova Ferocian ambassador replied. “We've met, remember? We did some research on you, so I know a few things. You are ronin, not samurai, but not a mercenary either. Your sense of duty is very important to you, and you try to hide your true feelings by putting on that con-mammal facade.”

“Gee. Spoil my reputation, why don’t you? Speaking of, don’t go telling everybody, okay?”

“Who would I tell?”

“Good point.”

The ambassador was silent a short while, and Nick turned to leave. “Don’t get too comfortable. The admission form says ‘canine’ and not ‘coyote’, but the ZPD has access to those, so there will be a ‘be on the look out’ issued later today. You need to be gone before any bad mammals show up.”

The ambassador did not ask how Nick Wilde knew what the ‘bad mammals’ were going to do or who, precisely, they were. “Mr. Wilde? Wait a moment. I have a question.”

“Another one?”

“Have you married Judy Hopps yet? I don’t see any sort of traditional fox ‘I’m taken’ sign on you, and you did not come close enough for me to smell.” 

“Kind of a personal question,” the fox replied, smirking. 

“So, ‘no’, in other words. I had thought you were waiting to graduate from the Police Academy before taking up with her. But you’re a cop now, so-“ the coyote said, broke off, and looked a question at Nick. He could see that she could have continued, but had hesitated so as to be polite. He did not have to explain if he really didn’t want to.

“It’s complicated.”

“Not really. Male,” she replied pointing at Nick, “and female.” Then she pointed outside, and in the general direction Nick would soon go, toward the exit. "If you're into that sort of thing, which I know you are."

“Rabbit,” Nick replied, pointing outside. “Fox,” pointing at himself. "Mammals don't marry outside their species."

‘Is it fear of commitment? Fear of getting his heart broken again?’ The coyote wondered.

“My life partner is a roadrunner. Did you know that?” Nick was surprised, but only shrugged when he heard this, so the ambassador continued, “we met way back when, while filming a TV show, if you can believe it. Now I can’t imagine my life without her.”

“Oh,” Nick replied, uncertain. “How did you know-“

“That she felt the same way about me? I didn’t. I just knew she was the finest mammal I knew, so I told her how I felt. She said, ‘I know.’" The coyote was smiling now, thinking about it. “What do you think of the rabbit? What you think when you think of her?”

‘She’s the finest mammal I know,’ the fox thought, but he did he did not say it. “Well, look at the time. I need to meet up with Judy again before we attend morning briefing, so I’ll have to get back to you about that.”

The next day, Wednesday, Nick was up on a rooftop, watching a three wheeled traffic trike cruising slowly along a line of parked cars. There was a grey rabbit driving the trike, and two pigs watching the trike from a car across the street. 

Nick’s phone lit up, and he activated the talk function.

“Go Wilde,” he said into the phone.

“Funny. Ha ha,” Finn replied.

“Well?” Nick asked. He knew who Finn had been with, but not exactly what he’d been doing, yesterday.

“Showed them the airfield. Now they've got some other pigs watching it. That’s two or three less we need to worry about. Gave him a Novan coin to prove Wiley was there.”

“Oh? No signed photo with me, the coyote, and a copy of the Zimmerman Note?”

“Not this time. Next time,” the shorter fox replied. “I put a tracker in the pigs' limo.”

“Good. I'm watching one or two in a car out here on Commerce Street. We're all watching a rabbit giving out traffic tickets,” Nick said.

At that moment, the trike stopped, and the rabbit got out and looked at the truck between her and the pigs. Then she looked more or less directly at Nick, put her paws on her chest, and ran them down her body. Her eyes were closed and her ears were up and back. She was smirking.

“Thinks she knows you’re there?” The voice on the phone asked.

“Yeah. She knows,” Nick replied. Back on the street, the truck moved and the rabbit got back in the trike to resume giving out traffic tickets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot how much fun I have writing Nick in what as going to be first person.


	5. Chief Bogo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is Thursday afternoon and Friday.

“Why did you pay him, boss?” Paul asked, as they watched Finnick's van depart. “The airfield he showed us was a dead-end. Useless.”

“Not useless. There are only so many places Nick Wilde can be, and we know the ambassador is with him. Mr. Lee told us the ambassador was going to ask the fox and the bunny for help. We know the ambassador is not with the bunny, and the fox is in hiding, so the ambassador must be with him. Eventually, if we turn over enough rocks, and assign them to ZPD for watching, we'll find the one the ambassador is, or will be, under. ”

“Are we going to talk to that shrew Finn mentioned?”

“No. He took the rabbit back to ZPD, and we know Wilde will get back in touch with her. We're running out of time, but she’s the key, so Porky will stay close to her. Paul? You need to rent a van and then we’ll go to the airport. We’ve got company coming.”

 

Hogsteader went to see Chief Bogo later that day. The pig entered without knocking and took a seat. 

“Bogo! Any leads?” He asked, smiling. Now he had more personnel, and soon he would have the ambassador as well. He really did not want to think about failure.

“Several,” The buffalo replied, scowling. He was thinking, ‘and that’s Chief Bogo.’ 

The pig waited, but that was all the buffalo said. They both waited, staring at each other.

The pig looked away first. “Look, Mason, maybe we got off on the wrong hoof. Help me help you. Sooner you find that coyote, and turn her over to us, the sooner I’ll be out of your fur,” the pig said. "Lionheart told you to cooperate."

“I am now, and I have been, aware of that. What, precisely, do you need?”

“The ambassador,” the pig replied. "Any of your mammals seen her?"

“I’ve got officers staking out Wilde’s apartment, Judy’s apartment, the embassy, and that airfield you told us about this afternoon. All cars have a picture, and my officers are questioning coyotes that they see. So far, there have been no sightings.”

“Lee was injured. Maybe the ambassador was also? Have you checked the hospitals?” The pig asked. 

“You never told me that,” the buffalo said. 

“You didn’t need to know, then. Now, you do,” the pig replied. He had forgotten that detail, but wasn't about to admit such a thing. 

“There are reports of injuries every day. We usually only pay attention to the ones involving a weapon or suspicious injury, and we've checked those already.”

“Any injured coyotes?” The pig asked. 

“One report says ‘canine,’ which is odd because that's not specific enough when the patient is alive and able to be identified. That one was admitted very early this morning, and released a couple hours ago,” the buffalo replied, looking at the notes on his desk. 

“While I was busy watching Officer Hopps! Dammit!” Hogsteader said. “Send some officers to Zootopia General. Find out if the ambassador was there!”

Friday

Chief Bogo was having another bad day. First, there was that damned pig yesterday telling his officers they could shoot mammals. Fallout from them was continuing. Then Ofc. Wilde chooses to disappear, earlier than expected, between the briefing room and my office. Then the pigs effectively kidnap Officer Hopps, and she apparently doesn’t do a thing about it! ’What next?’ He thought.

Someone knocked on his door.

“Enter!” He shouted, and then realized he didn't need to.

“Hopps. Have a seat,” the chief said, gesturing.

The rabbit jumped easily into one of the chairs, and stood facing the buffalo on the other side of the desk. "I wasn't sure you were alone, sir."

“Learn anything useful?” Bogo asked, waving a hoof.

“Not much. I met three of them so far: Hogsteader, Paul, and Porky. Each is armed with a pistol and they have a limo, probably rented. Hogsteader does all the talking, and he wants me to work for them, so they have some sort of long-term plan. No surprise there. They think Nick and I are still in contact, as expected, so they will probably continue watching me closely. I had lunch with them, and learned about the extremely loose definition these pigs have for 'finger food'. One of Nick’s friends, Finn, took over mammal sitting after dropping me off here. I expect he will put a tracker in or on their car.”

"He apparently took them on a tour of that abandoned airfield where Officer Wilde likes to goof off," Bogo added. "Hogsteader just found out about the hospital, so I hope Wilde got the ambassador out already." 

"Yes, sir, he did."

“How do you feel about them watching you do traffic duty?” The buffalo asked. "If I keep you here, they'll probably make you eat with them again."

Judy's ears did not move, but her eyes widened very briefly before she regained control of them, and Bogo's nodded. "Just be careful, OK?"

 

Officer Hopps spent the rest of Friday afternoon driving around the city in the traffic trike, and handing out traffic tickets. The limo with two pigs followed her, but they never got too close.

‘This is very annoying,’ she thought. For perhaps the tenth time she thought about going to Mr. Bigg's place, but decided against it once again. Hogsteader would probably try to treat Big as a common criminal, and there would be a fight. Big would win, but mammals would be hurt or killed, and she did not want that. ‘Even if it would rid me of these annoying pigs.’

Her only break in the routine came when she saw Nick watching her from an adjacent rooftop. She broke visual contact with the pigs, briefly, and then gestured in Nick’s direction. The fox, of course, did not respond, but she imagined she heard his heart rate increase. 

The day finally ended, and Officer Hopps went home. She saw another pig watching from across the street, but ignored him.


	6. Finn's Point of View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story continues with the current location of the ambassador.

“Pay him,” the head, or at least the most ridiculously dressed, pig said.

“Thanks!” Finn replied, continuing his ‘good old boy trying to make money by betraying a friend’ act. He got back in his van and drove away.

“Well, that was easy,” Finn said to himself, thinking. He had left the pigs standing by a bridge near the old, abandoned, airfield outside Zootopia. Dirigibles used to come and go from that location, but now most mammals used trains to travel across country. ‘That’s what happens when one of those airships explodes,’ the fox thought to himself. ‘No more passengers.’

 

Time passed, and Finn continued to watch the pigs watching Judy. He took turns with Nick and a few other mammals they both knew. They could all see that there were more than the initial three pigs now, but they also knew that things in the PDRNF were heating up again. Finn had counted a dozen pigs here, and they had at least two limos, a couple of sedans, a van, and a truck to get around.

On Saturday afternoon, around 2:30 PM, he went to see Nick. The two foxes needed to talk muzzle to muzzle.

“Where would he be?” The small, brown fox wondered, wandering around the campus. As a predator, he would normally be watched suspiciously, but today he was wearing coveralls and a tool belt, so the students assumed he was one of the many workers assigned to keep the environment free of imperfections and flaws that might distract the students' learning. The belt held several hand tools that the fox had never actually used for their intended purposes. The hammer, for example, had been used, but had never hit a nail.

The engineering building was right where he remembered. No one around this time of day, but the doors were open, and Finn wandered down a familiar hallway, listening and scenting the air.

“… And that’s why you never want a baghouse down airstream of a scrubber. Too much mud!” Nick was saying, happily. 

By the smells, it was just the red fox, and a couple of females, two deer in this case. They were young, and, evidently, very impressed by this very exotic, and apparently foreign, professor’s wit. 

“Oh, hey, Finn. What’s up?” Nick said, seeing his friend in the doorway. The does also saw the intruder, and their eyes narrowed. Few students would willingly associate with what most of them thought of as the ‘hired help,’ after all. The intruder was a fox like the professor, but the does clearly didn’t think of Professor Wilde in the same way. That is, as a predator.

“Got a minute?” Finn asked, ignoring the females. They had been looking at Nick the way Finn always at least tried to get females to look at him. He usually did this by applying alcohol, and sometimes it worked, at least for one night. 

“Sure, Finn. Ladies? If you’ll excuse us?”

The deer left, casting adoring looks behind them at the red fox, and pointedly ignoring the shorter brown one. “Excuse me,” Finn said, stepping out of their way.

The shorter fox continued when they were alone, and after he had shut the door. “Bed mates?”

“Them?” The taller fox asked, with his ears canted oddly. “They just wanted some help on their engineering homework.”

“That’s not all they wanted,” Finn replied, and changed the subject when Nick didn’t react. “Guest is okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. I've got her in my office down by the labs. Some of my colleagues come and go to keep her entertained, and they all think she’s some sort of political activist from the Carnivore Confederation,” Nick said. Even when it was just the two of them, the red fox would not say the ambassador’s name and place of origin. 

“What’s on your mind, Finn? You never come up here to ‘ivory tower land,’ just to socialize, and it's too early for a bar crawl.”

“Pigs are getting worried. Frustrated. Must be. Several days with no results other than what we've been feeding them, but they aren’t leaving. They’ll do something drastic soon to at least draw you out of hiding, adn then they'll try to force you to tell them what you know.”

“What do you think they’ll do?” Nick asked, leaning against a desk.

“It was me? Take a shot at whoever I could reach, to kick over the anthill and draw a reaction.”


	7. Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, to wrap it all up....

Ofc. Judy Hopps would admit later that she never actually saw the truck that crushed her traffic trike just after 9 AM. She was too busy jumping clear and then rolling. Finn saw the whole thing, and called in help before pursuing the truck. Officer Hopps was checking her trike when the ambulance arrived. She protested, but they took her to the hospital anyway. 

 

“I am fine, OK? I just have some scrapes on my armor. That is what it is for, after all,” she was saying into the phone when she heard familiar voices outside her private emergency room enclosure. “Mom? I will call you back. My coworkers need to take my statement. Bye!”

“Are you decent?” Nick asked. 

“Come on in,” she replied, without actually answering his question. She had been listening to to her parents and the current story about more unrest in what everyone was still calling Nova Ferocia, despite the official name change. 

The fox saw a rabbit in a hospital gown sitting on a hospital bed. It wasn’t the same bed that the ambassador had used so recently, but Nick kept his distance in the same way. 

“You do know you can’t be here, right?” Judy asked, as if the fox didn’t know about the arrest order. 

“Oh, I know. Fang was just explaining it to me,” the fox replied, and gestured to the male wolf behind him. 

“Hey Fangmeyer. How are you doing?” Judy asked, seeing the wolf’s shoulder past the fox. The wolf was facing away, but one ear was cocked toward her. 

“Not too bad,” he replied. “Sorry. I have to take Nick down to the station.” 

“I understand. Thanks for letting me see him first,” Judy said, as they left. 

 

An hour later, Nick Wilde was in Interrogation Room 1, at ZPD. 

“Do you need an attorney?” Major Hogsteader asked, trying for the kind of ‘good cop’ approach he’d seen on TV so many times. Officer Fangmeyer watched from behind the one way mirror in the next room, with instructions to let Chief Bogo know if things got rough. 

“No, thanks. I can tell myself to not answer any of your questions,” the fox replied. 

“You do know that won’t work, right? You are under arrest here in Zootopia, currently, but you will be extradited to the PDRNF just as soon as I say the word. You’ve got just a little time before that to make me not say it, so why don’t you make it easy on yourself and tell me where you’ve got the ambassador stashed?” 

The fox did not reply. 

“Look. I’m sorry about what happened to your rabbit friend. This city is a dangerous place. I’d hate to have something like that happen again, you know what I mean?”

The fox looked at the pig, and still said nothing. 

Hours passed and the fox was subjected to a barrage of questions from Major Hogsteader and his hench mammals. All the questions related to the same information. “Where is the ambassador?” 

 

Around 4:00 PM, Major Hogsteader went up to the third floor to see Chief Bogo to formally request Nick’s transfer into PDRNF custody. ‘We’ll see how long he refuses to talk after we waterboard him a few times,’ he thought. ‘I’ll probably have to trade Bogo something for the fox, maybe one or two low level members of their ambassadorial staff, but it’ll be worth it.’ 

“Ah, Chief Bogo!” The pig said, when he saw the big buffalo. Then he realized the chief was not alone and Major Hogsteader’s jaw dropped. “Ambassador Wiley? Former ambassador, that is?” 

“Hogsteader, is it? Nice to see you,” the coyote replied as if nothing odd was going on. "Officer Wilde has been keeping me safe."

“That’s her! Why isn’t she under arrest?” The pig asked. 

“Haven’t you heard the news? Your gang isn’t in power anymore. Your Junta was unable to convince the Novan Army that their interests, and the interests of the people, were being appropriately served,” the coyote replied when the buffalo said nothing. "I understand that your boss is currently unemployed and very indisposed."

"Killed, you mean! You-" the pig began. 

Police Chief Bogo grabbed Major Hogsteador, spun him around, and threw him against a nearby wall. The major’s guard attempted to intervene, but Officer Hopps, recently released from hospital, shot him with her Taser.

“You have the right to remain silent,” the big buffalo told the slightly smaller pig. “I don’t actually care if you are silent or not, but I have to tell you that. Oh, and you’re under arrest for ordering a vehicular assault against one of my officers earlier today.”

The major struggled, but was unable to break the police chief’s grip.

“You still know how to do it, sir!” The rabbit observed, while cuffing the other pig, this one unconscious on the floor.

“It’s like riding a bicycle, Hopps. You never forget how,” the chief replied. 

 

Around 5:00 PM, Major Hogstetter found himself alone in an interrogation room. On the other side of the one-way glass, a coyote, a rabbit, a fox, and a buffalo watched him. Official extradition paperwork was expected soon, but until then, the pig was the ZPD’s problem. The pig had, indeed, invoked his right to silence. 

"...and I'd like to express, once again, the thanks of my people for the help I received from your officers," the ambassador concluded, having been talking for several minutes, apparently in an attempt to get Chief Bogo to say the whole thing was his idea. 

"Yes. My officers did a good job of keeping Hogsteader in the dark," Bogo replied. 

"Why did he do those things?" Judy asked. 

“Who knows? Some grudge, or maybe pigs think of themselves as a repressed minority in Nova Ferocia? These apparently had some grudge, and I suppose I’ll have to look into it,” the coyote said. 

“Did we get them all?” The rabbit asked. “He had, what, a dozen other mammals with him? That is, the ones we knew about.”

“We got most of them," the buffalo replied. "Some of them disappeared. They may have made it back to Nova Ferocia, or maybe they're hiding somewhere else."

"Speaking of mammals going missing. Have you seen Fennec recently?" The buffalo asked. 

"I am pretty sure he has gone camping," the rabbit replied with no noticeable hesitation. Nick said nothing, but he wondered how much Judy knew. 

 

Everyone knew Fennec hated to camp by himself, but they also knew he tended to do it whenever he got too stressed by events in the City. A week had passed since the arrest of Hogsteader, and the little fox was taking a short vacation in the woods far from town. He had done this before, when working for Mr. Big, and would probably do it again.

He was dressed in the same coveralls he had worn during his visit to the university, but this time, he carried a shovel and a hand saw. Had there been anyone nearby listening, they would have wondered why he was apparently talking to himself. There was no way he was getting cell phone coverage out here, so he couldn’t be talking on his phone. Maybe he was doing some sort of audio diary? 

“Feel that crisp clean mountain air! It’s very refreshing wouldn’t you say? No? Oh, well,” the fox said, re-positioning the shovel. 

He got down on his hands and knees to cut various roots out of the way, and then did some more digging. He stopped periodically to scent the air and confirm that he was alone. ‘Wouldn’t do my rep any good for some mammal to hear me talking to myself! Especially about this!’

“Nick’s been my friend for as long as I can remember,” he said, taking a break. “I owe him everything and anything. Even this, even though he never actually asked me to do it and I'll never tell him what happened to you after you tried to kill Judy. Not sorry about your interrupted travel plans, and doubt you’ll be missed.”

There was no reply, and the fox went back to digging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably going to take a break for awhile, at least from these Judy Hopps stories. I've got a bunch of darker, dystopian stuff, but it's not quite finished yet. Really, I should be writing things that don't relate to Zootopia because everyone has been asking me the same question: "Isn't that a kids' movie?"


End file.
